Joint action for Biomarkers in Nutrition and Health
JPI HDHL BioNH
CALL ANNOUNCEMENT
http://www.healthydietforhealthylife.eu/index.php/bionh In the frame of the Joint Action for Biomarkers in Nutrition and Health the JPI HDHL launches on April 14th 2014 a call for submission of research proposals. INTRODUCTION
In pillar two of the strategic research agenda (SRA) for the JPI ‘A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life’ (JPI HDHL), the Management Board identified Biomarkers in Nutrition and Health as an area for joint activities to be developed over the period, 2012–2014. SCOPE OF THE BIOMARKERS IN NUTRITION AND HEALTH (BIONH) CALL
The main objective of the Biomarkers in Nutrition and Health (BioNH) call is to support interdisciplinary research and innovative approaches for the validation of biomarkers and the investigation of intake/exposure and nutritional status of biomarkers within this scientific area. This is a key step in the implementation of the JPI HDHL SRA. BioNH aims to define and harmonise the methodology necessary to prove the nutritional effects in the development of foods. The intake of foods, food ingredients and food contaminants in a population is a major challenge and questionnaire technology may lead to biased results. Dietary patterns may be even more complicated. Exposure biomarkers covering a broad number of foods and food components could provide a more objective measure of actual intake and status, and will be an important adjunct to classical dietary data. However, few foods are covered by validated intake/exposure biomarkers. One of the main applications of dietary biomarkers is to use them as a reference measurement to assess the validity and accuracy of dietary assessment methodologies. The most important dietary biomarkers for this application are: •
Recovery dietary biomarkers: based on the metabolic balance between intake and excretion over a fixed period of time; •
Predictive dietary biomarkers: to assess the degree of measurement errors in dietary assessment methods; •
Concentration and replacement dietary biomarkers: For comparison with estimated dietary intakes and estimated diet–disease risk associations. This joint will require a close alignment with the joint actions “DEDIPAC” and the “ENPADASI” (http://www.healthydietforhealthylife.eu/index.php/joint-­‐actions ) and it is envisaged that appropriate horizontal initiatives will be put in place to allow for the rapid dissemination of knowledge between each of the actions at the end of 2014. Diet and food production 1 Joint action for Biomarkers in Nutrition and Health
JPI HDHL BioNH
CALL ANNOUNCEMENT
http://www.healthydietforhealthylife.eu/index.php/bionh PARTICIPATING MEMBER STATES
Twelve countries have agreed to participate in the joint call and these include: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland. ELIGIBILITY AND FUNDING CRITERIA
Joint transnational research proposals may be submitted by research groups working in universities (or other higher education institutions), non-­‐university public research institutes, hospitals and other health care settings, as well as commercial companies, in particular small and medium-­‐size enterprises. The eligibility of the afore-­‐mentioned institutions, together with details of eligible costs (personnel, material, consumables, equipment, travel expenses, etc.), are subject to the individual administrative requirements of individual funding organisations and may therefore vary. Each proposal must involve a minimum of three research groups (Principal investigators) applying for funding. Only transnational projects will be funded: each consortium must involve groups from at least three different countries of the funding organisations participating in this call. Research groups from countries that are not partners in the JPI HDHL joint transnational call may participate in projects if they are able to secure their own funding. They must state clearly in the proposal if these funds are already secured or, if not, how they plan to obtain funding in advance of the project start. However, the majority of research groups in a consortium and the coordinator must be from countries participating in the call. APPLICATION PROCEDURE
The Call process will be carried out online on the HDHL-­‐JPI Submission Tool. A Proposal Template for the submission of a Research proposal is available in the Electronic submission system. The submission of an application to the Call shall be construed as consent by the applicant(s) to participate in the peer-­‐review process. D eadline for the submission of proposals on the 10 th June 2014 , at 5 pm (CEST) . EVALUATION
Before the peer review evaluation the submitted proposals have to pass through an eligibility check for the coherence with both the general BioNH criteria and the specific national eligibility rules. The following criteria Diet and food production 2 Joint action for Biomarkers in Nutrition and Health
JPI HDHL BioNH
CALL ANNOUNCEMENT
http://www.healthydietforhealthylife.eu/index.php/bionh will be used for the evaluation of proposals submitted: •
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Scientific quality of the proposal and quality of the transnational project Quality and relevance of individual scientists and research groups Quality and efficiency of the implementation and management of resources made available to the collaborative projects Potential impact The proposals will be reviewed primarily for scientific excellence; however, it will be essential that the applications address each criterion fully. All applications will be graded A, B & C, and those proposals deemed fundable will be ranked by the Review Panel. Of note, only those applications with an A grade will be considered for funding and all applicants will receive feedback on their proposals. PROJECT FUNDING
Projects can be funded for a period of up to three years and according to the respective funding organisations’ regulations with funding expected to start in Q4 of 2014. The funding of a successful project is provided based on the virtual common pot scheme, meaning that each funding organisation will fund its own national partner(s) within the project (funding of project partners is provided by the participating national programmes according to National Regulations). However, some funding organisations may be able to fund foreign teams, e.g. via subcontracting. The indicative total available budget amounts to €5.5 million. PROPOSED TIME SCHEDULE
-­‐ Apr. 14th 2014 -­‐ June 10th 2014 -­‐ June 16th 2014 -­‐ June 23th 2014 -­‐ July 7th 2014 -­‐ Aug. 25th 2014 -­‐ Sept. 25–26th 2014 -­‐ Oct. 10th 2014 -­‐ Oct. 11th 2014 -­‐ Dec. 1st 2014 Publication of the BioNH Joint Transnational Call Submission deadline for proposals (5pm CEST) Formal eligibility check of proposals finished National eligibility check of proposals finished Reviewer allocation Reviews completed PRP meeting, final ranking, CSC meeting Final funding decision via E-­‐mail Start of national administrative procedures Start of funding Diet and food production 3 Joint action for Biomarkers in Nutrition and Health
JPI HDHL BioNH
CALL ANNOUNCEMENT
http://www.healthydietforhealthylife.eu/index.php/bionh FURTHER INFORMATION
The call will be coordinated centrally by the Joint Action Secretariat (JAS), ZonMw. Contact details are: Name: Jolien Wenink/ Josanne Huijg Address: ZonMw P.O. Box 93245 2509 AE Den Haag The Netherlands Email: jpihdhl@zonmw.nl Diet and food production 4